From the Bridge Pastor
Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
As I pointed out last week, each Sunday of Easter has a special emphasis. Easter Sunday and Pentecost correspond to pre-existing Jewish feasts: The first day of Pesach (פסח) and the holiday of Shavu'ot (שבועות).
The Ascension of Our Lord is celebrated on the 40th day of Eastertide (a Thursday).
Eastertide ends with the third major festival of the Church year, The Day of Pentecost. In the meantime, we will hear wonderful biblical accounts of what Jesus did between the Resurrection and his Ascension into heaven.
The Sleep in Heavenly Peace organization has moved bedding supplies into Oasis on our second floor. Even though the door is not locked, please respect the space we are providing for this wonderful organization! [Pictures]
Please keep the Open and Affirming Task Force in your prayers as we move forward to live into our sign at the bottom of the stairway to the second floor: “Jesus didn’t reject people. Neither do we.” Our next meeting will be May 15.
Blessed Eastertide.
Soli Deo Gloria (to God alone be the glory)!
Pastor Del
About the Hymn “Where Charity and Love Prevail”
This hymn is from 9th century Latin and was translated by Omer Westendorf.
Where charity and love prevail,
there Christ is ever found;
brought here together by Christ’s love,
by love are we thus bound.
Omer Westendorf (1916-1997) was one of the leading composers following the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Beginning at age 20, he received his master’s degree in music at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and for most of his professional musical career served as organist and choirmaster at St. Bonaventure Church in Cincinnati. Under his direction the Bonaventure Choir sang concerts and recorded sacred music for several decades.
One of his greatest achievements was the founding of the World Library of Sacred Music in 1950 and World Library Publications in 1957. These organizations have been primary distributors of music for the Mass in the United States and beyond.
Westendorf was also known for his lectures and seminars on sacred music, consultations on liturgical music and as a hymn writer.
“Where charity and love prevail” (1961) provides an English hymn version of a 9th-century Latin hymn, “Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est” (Where there is charity and love, God is there) based on 1 John 4:16. Traditionally, this is the final hymn on Maundy Thursday referring to the act of washing of the disciples’ feet initiated by Jesus.
Scholar H. Myron Braun comments on this ancient ritual: “[The Latin chant] is said to date from the ninth century…with its emphasis on community within the faith, on Christians holding one another in love and concern.
The text draws directly on John 13:34, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”
This hymn is appropriate at any time that the theme is on the unity of Christ. The first stanza stresses that those gathered in Christ are “brought here together by Christ’s love.” The second stanza states that we learn charity through Christ’s “grateful joy and holy fear;” thus we naturally “love Christ in return.”
Christian charity requires the act of mutual reconciliation. Therefore, following the example of Christ’s model prayer, we “Forgive…each other’s faults as we our faults confess.” Receiving Christ’s charity is not enough; we must magnify Christ’s love through our relationships with each other.
The fourth stanza continues this line of thought by offering the petition that “strife among us be unknown” and “all contention [should] cease.” This is possible only if “the glory that we seek” is Christ.
